Critical Role: After an Hour
by Aradia-hornbeam
Summary: Set just before Vox Machina face the Kraken, a one-shot fluff with Vax and Keyleth after he says "we have an hour" rated for language


Just another quick one-shot from the latest episodes set the night before Vox Machina face the Kraken. A bit of fluff i thought might have happened between Vax and Keyleth.

Hope you enjoy.

 **Disclaimer: Inspired by the wonderful cast of Critical Role I own nothing**

Keyleth lay against her lover in the eerie reflective twilight that was night in Vesrah, watching the watery shadows dance on the ceiling of the small hut they'd settled in.

Vax's skin was hot against hers, damp with the aftermath of their love making. She listened to his heartbeat as it gentled itself from the urgent drumming to a slow comforting rhythm.

His wings had vanished moments ago but she held a single black feather between her fingertips. She raised it up to catch the light admiring the subtle emerald tints among the black in facination blushing at the memory of what had just passed.

She felt him smile against her hair, he reached up running his fingertips across the sensitive skin of her wrist and hand to caress the feather.

"A lingering gift from the Champion of the Raven Queen to the Voice of the Tempest."

She shivered at his caress and his words, the enormity of it wiping away the lingering moment of bliss.

Without a word she dropped the feather and turned to bury her face in his neck curling her body into his as tightly as she could. The tears came in a rush, each gasp of air a crashing wave that shook her body.

Vax held her tightly murmuring soft words of confort until the flood subsided and she felt that she had no more tears to shed.

"I can't do this Vax."

She whispered it into his hair, taking comfort in the scent of him, letting it surround her.

"All i keep thinking about is my Mother. How she died, what she saw. She came here with her friends and she watched them all die. All of them!"

She swallowed hard against the tightness in her throat. "The day she left for her Aramente, there was a festival, i was so proud of her. My Mum... my mum was going to be a hero. Everyone told me how wonderful it was, how much she would learn, what an honour it was to be chosen, and I believed them! I kissed her and hugged her and she told me she'd see me soon."

Vax tried to pull her gently back but she resisted knowing that if she looked into his eyes she would be lost to her tears again.

"I waited, thinking i'd see her the next week. I knew nothing of the world outside, how vast it was, how dangerous. When the weeks turned to months, then years...until my Father came for me to tell me i had to prepare for my Aramente...until that day I was allowed to hope. After that...i knew...she wasn't coming back."

She pulled back at last looking into his beatiful eyes and the world of understanding beyond them.

"If she couldn't do this...how can I?"

Vax reached out to wipe the tears from her eyes his fingers callused but tender, he traced her cheek and cupped her gently under her chin drawing her to him for a soft reverant kiss then moved her back to hold her gaze once more.

"You are not your Mother. Doubt killed her, don't let it kill you." He smiled sadly "We are Vox Machina, we are the bastards who took down the Chroma Conclave and saved the whole fuckin world!"

Keyleth smiled back at him at that. "And you-" His eyes darkened with sudden intensity "are a Goddess."

She blushed at that leaning forward to rest her forehead against his taking strength from him.

"This is your destiny Kiki." He whispered.

"you will not fail. If you don't trust in yourself trust in me, and our family, to make sure you do not fail."

His kissed her again, drawing her back down to the bed rolling on top of her.

"This is not just your Aramente anymore. It's Vox Machina's"

He claimed her lips again silencing and words of protest she might have thought to utter, his hand drifted down and she arched into him her mind mercifully distracted once again. She gave herself over to it, tonight was for them, tomorrow was for destiny.


End file.
